South Dakota prosecutors charged a Sioux Falls man on Monday with first-degree murder and aggravated eluding in the death of a deputy who was struck while putting out spikes during a police chase.
Joseph Gene Hoek, 40, was ordered held without bail at his first court appearance in the death of Moody County Chief Deputy Ken Prorok, 51, of Wentworth, who died during the pursuit on Friday.
People close to Hoek described him as being on a “downward spiral” marked by drug use and escalating threats of violence, Special Agent Jeffrey Kollars of the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation wrote in a court filing dated Sunday.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is prosecuting the case himself. He said he still needs to investigate any mitigating factors, then sit down with Prorok’s family, and then with the sheriff and his deputies, before deciding whether to seek the death penalty.
“I believe the attorney general should lead from the front and I’ve always tried to do that,” Jackley told The Associated Press. “Especially when it involves a law enforcement officer that gave the ultimate sacrifice.”